I enjoyed reading this book and liked the way that the story developed. Definitely recommended to those who enjoy this genre.

After loving Paver's Dark Matter and Thin Air, this book didn't work so well for me. The two earlier books were tight and ambiguous, and because we only saw the story through one set of eyes we were left hovering deliciously on that edge between haunting or a form of madness. Plus they were shivering-scary.

This feels more laboured, with a constant switching between narratives: Paver's strengths show in Edmund Stearne's diary - the gradual revelations, the disintegrating mind. But alternating this with a 3rd person narrative through the PoV of his eminently sane, though enraged, daughter Maud removes any sense of ambiguity.

A bit MR James (the painting), a bit Wuthering Heights-lite, this ties all its ends up too neatly for my taste. Modern Gothic fans may well love it.

Wakenhyrst is a perfect Gothic horror novel. It has all the elements a reader could wish for. I love how much of the book comes from real life sources and I'm inspired to dig deeper for myself. The setting is evocative and it is a tribute to Paver's skill that the fen is both comforting and safe, and horridly creepy at the same time. The characters all so alive it feels like they are creeping from the page. It felt more like I was living this story than reading it. Beautiful.

You'd expect Maud, here, in 1906, to be quite worldly-wise, especially considering the rapidity with which her father knocks up her mother, to such often and such calamitous ends. But no, living in such a freakishly antiquated manner on the edge of a fen, it comes down to other people to teach her in the ways of all things. There's the solitary man living alone in the fen, a place much afeared by everyone else for its dangers and mystical beings, there's an older girl servant with a sharp knowledge of mankind, and a handsome young lad also working the estate. So which is it – the over-bearing father, the other educators, or the fenland's rampant superstitions – that will most inspire what will happen fifty years later, when her father does some impromptu brain surgery on someone in the garden with an ice-pick, leaving a legacy of her allegedly going mad and three incredibly famous but hard to describe paintings? Is she right to have kept a notebook that could have let her father off as innocent (or mad) from public eye from decades, and is an interested author right to say she was in fact the murderess, and witchcraft was involved?

File this as a Gothic chiller, and a Gothic chiller of the higher order. It has everything – rarefied setting, unusual if not disturbing characters and situations, and secrets lasting the years. At times I felt the author made those secrets a little too bluntly guessable – we could tell what had been what without any build-up of clues as if she hadn't had control of the drip-drip of information, but never did I really get ahead of things to any major extent. And in fact, it's quite lovely to read the final third and come across the returning detail, with the "oh, so that was a clue…" grin on your face.

It's a Gothic chiller to the extent that it has all the hallmarks of that elderly genre, but there's enough here that's modern. Maud is a great way in for the author to discuss sexual politics, and in particular the religiously-inspired suppression of women. There was a point when a chap has a vision of the word "wake" and I wouldn't have been surprised at times to have seen the horrific neologism "woke" instead. But this never turns into an issue-based story, it remains one of sheer readable delight. It's a clever read, where so much richness ultimately conspires to make one of the more thoughtful and intelligent entertainments the genre has.

I requested this because I enjoyed Dark Matter so much and once again I've been blown away by this author. I was hooked from the word go and found it very hard to put down. Won't give me nightmares like Dark Matter, but the evocation of the Fens was just as powerful. Highly recommended.

Another excellent supernatural tale from Michelle Paver.

Wakenhyrst focuses on a young girl named Maud who lives in a mansion on the Suffolk fens with her horrid misogynist father Edmund. Edmund is plagued by demons; whether they are mental or literal is open to debate. Maud watches as her father slowly unravels and the family hurtles towards scandal and tragedy.

A thoroughly enjoyable and at times creepy tale, Wakenhyrst successfully pulled me in to its world almost immediately. Maud is an interesting, not always sympathetic, central character, and her father is simply awful!

The only imperfection here for me was in the pacing. I felt there was a little too much of a slow build (Edmund must have suspiciously noticed the soggy fens smell a hundred times) and the climax seemed rushed in comparison.

Highly recommended for fans of supernatural tales with historical settings. Or for people who are interested in efficiently catching eels.

I just loved Michelle's first adult book 'Dark Matter'. I'm a sucker for an atmospheric ghost story, so that one was a real treat for me. I didn't read her second 'Thin Air', so was looking forward to reading this new novel, especially as it sounded of the same ilk. I must admit I wasn't a fan of the beginning or the ending - I think the story would have stood excellently well without the storyline of a grown up Maud with the journalist and the doctor friend. Apart from that, I really enjoyed the story of young Maud and her strict father living with the rest of the family and household in a large manor surrounded by the fens and marshes of Suffolk. Religion, folklore, good and evil, Heaven and Hell, God and the devil, delirium, madness and murder all combine to create an eerie and macabre story, that rolled along at a good pace. There were some characters who didn't need to be in the story (Maud's two brothers are hardly mentioned, and have no real role, so perhaps they could've been edited out) but I loved the continual friction and emotionless relationship between Maud and her father. You learn much about how big a part religion played in people's lives in that era of the early 1900s, and how Darwinism was frowned upon. Women too had their role as wives and mothers, and were otherwise perceived as being delicate or stupid.

Overall, not as good as 'Dark Matte'r, but a good read just the same.

I could not decide whether or not I enjoyed this book - I found it hard to read. On the positive side it was very atmospheric - the descriptions of the fens were beautiful but it felt so dark. I did not take to the main characters and found Edmund’s obsessions difficult to understand. Maud was brave, intelligent and manipulative. I did not like her but was mpressed by her survival. The tension was well ratcheted up and I did not foresee the ending.

Beautifully written but not one my pupils are looking kelp to take to.

I have never read Michelle Paver before but will certainly make it my mission to read others.
I really enjoyed Wakenhyrst. It took me a little while to ‘get into’, but then drew me in and kept me guessing till the very end. I loved Maud’s character and the way she developed. Set in the early 20th Century women were deemed unimportant and Maud was fearful of her father but throughout the story she grew in strength and bravery. A tale which encompasses the supernatural, witchcraft, loneliness, sadness, religion, relationships and madness and keeps you engrossed in the story. Beautifully written, I would definitely recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley for my free copy in exchange for a review

I found myself drawn into this book by degrees. For the first few pages I was rather confused. After that I started to get into the rhythm of the book and found myself gradually reading more and more quickly until I was completely immersed in it. It's a great yarn. It's pacy. The tension builds beautifully, and I like the fact that you as the reader are as unsure as Maud, the main character, as to what is going on. What is the book? Is it a ghost story? Is it a portrait of insanity? Is it a gothic tale? It's a bit of all of these, and I like the fact that the uncertainty lingers to the very end of the book. Having said that it is still a very satisfying read and there is no sense of being cheated of an ending. I loved Maud as a character and her development throughout the book is one of the most pleasing things about it.

An excellent, atmospheric book.
Intriguing storytelling at its best with a supernatural thread running through the core.
Having read both of the authors previously themed books, i can honestly say that it is of the same high caliber.
Highly recommended.

Wow what a wonderful read, this is a book full of gothic atmosphere, mystery and menace set amongst the wild, bleak wilderness of the fens. Steeped in folklore and superstition Maud is totally dominated by her father and brought up in a miserable oppressive way while her father descends into his own paranoia and madness. This is my first book by the very talented Michelle Paver and I was very impressed both by the beautiful writing and the excellent description of the characters and their backgrounds. The novel was a dark compulsive read and I really loved it, it’s a novel to enjoy and savour its original and very reminiscent of the the old style gothic classics and I can highly recommended it.
My thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Wakenhyrst is a stunning achievement, a story of religious fervour and the power and oppression of women. Like the characters, I too was enraptured by the brooding Fen, a character in its own right that possesses all it encounters. Maud is a brilliant, feisty character, whose heartbreaking story will stay with me for a long time. A story that draws on the great gothic tradition but feels inherently modern. Could not be more wonderful. My book of the year already.

A fan of Michelle Paver since I first read her ghost story “Dark Matter”, I was so excited to see she has a new book coming out and even more excited to receive an ARC to review via NetGalley. Dark Matter was a book I found uniquely terrifying, a perfectly compacted haunting and I was curious to see what else Paver could do.

Like Dark Matter, Wakenhyrst has a cunning approach of interlocking narratives, a story within a story as the opening. It works extremely well because it gives the reader time to acclimate to a strange and somewhat sinister landscape in which the tale is set and also provides some of the backstory without the need for a big info dump. We’re introduced to solitary Maud, living in the house and grounds where unexpectedly her father committed an awful murder some years ago. Once the main tale begins, from Maud’s point of view, it unfolds with a cracking pace and I simply could not put it down. I regret I read it almost too quickly because there’s a lot of layered goodness there as well as multiple hints and red herrings. But the suspense was so masterfully ratcheted up, it was impossible to slow down. There is a medieval painting called “the Doom”, secret diaries, surly servants, pet birds, eels and mysterious fens. Indeed I would go so far to say the fens act as a character in their own right, the perfect backdrop for the slow build of the creepy Gothic atmosphere.

One of the things I particularly liked is I felt there was a huge question mark throughout the book as to whether Maud is a reliable narrator or not. She comes across as an intelligent, complicated person right from the start but also as a person with an agenda of her own. That simply added to the growing unease and suspense. The supporting characters are also interesting and well drawn albeit we only get to see them from Maud's point of view. I also felt the resolution was really very good, which is a major strength for stories like this where it so often falls apart right at the conclusion/reveal.

A 5 star gothic horror set on the. claustrophic fens of Suffolk . This was a book I. could not put down., as the story developed there was a real sense of suspense and impeding horror. Obviously well researched , the author really does develop a true sense of the remoteness of the fens , the increasing madness of Maud’s father and Mauds increasing frustration as the adults around her and particularly the men do not take her concerns seriously.. Some great characters, the plot is straightforward, but that adds to the developing suspense..

I've been a fan of Michelle Paver since I read the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness to my oldest son. In fact, if he read ahead during the day (as often happened), I would wait until he was asleep then 'borrow' the book to read it for myself! In light of this, receiving an ARC of Wakenhyrst, was one of my Net Galley highlights of last year. I have to say that it didn't disappoint!
The reader finds them self being drawn into Edwardian rural Suffolk and the peculiar ways of the Fens. This is both a curse and a blessing as it's not always a comfortable place to reside, especially for a woman. I couldn't help but think of J. L. Carr's 'A Month in the Country', which also deals with the uncovering of a Medieval church painting in (post war) rural Suffolk. However, whereas in that book we meet a damaged narrator in a bucolic idyll, Wakenhyrst presents us with the naive, but calm and enquiring mind of Maud who lives in what seems to be a harsh and brutal environment.
The further I read in this book, the more I became immersed in the raw unforgiving nature of the Fens and the sense of impotency and futility that women must have felt then. I would wholeheartedly recommend this for anyone wanting an intriguing, immersive but slightly challenging read. It's not a particularly scary ghost story. I read late into the night on my own to finish this book and didn't feel uncomfortable, despite being a wimp in these matters! What it is, is an excellent gothic read that I'm sure will become a favourite of many.

Gosh I've loved Paver's writing even since discovering 'The Wolf Brother' books for my students. Such fabulous lessons and readings we had with Torak and Wolf!
Anyway, this is just my sort of book - Gothic writing, superb narrative plotting with a slam dunk ending! The descriptions of the landscape are evocative and beautiful even in their bleakness, such a great read for winter's day.
Set at Wake's End in 1906, a large house on the edge of the Fen, I couldn't help but think of Haworth and the Bronte's home on the edge of the moors and their Gothic writing. At the heart of the story is the home's owner Edmund Stearne and it's his psychology that is the most central and fascinating core to the story. Themes of the female at the time. family relationships, religion, psychology, oppression, supernatural, witchcraft, patriarchy and myths.
Gripping! Loved it! A must read!

I see this darkly Gothic tale as a potential modern Classic for 6th Form consumption.
At times unsettling, it is a haunting book of secrets, of magic, myth, murder; of madness and of obsession, of mystery and danger, with multiple viewpoints brought out by diaries and found manuscripts, all overshadowed by the insidious miasma of the marshy Suffolk Guthlaf's Fen. The essence of disaster is palpable, making it impossible to put this book down.
Maud Stearne, undervalued by her father, develops during the course of the narrative and becomes a strong protagonist.
I heartily recommend Wakenhyrst and thank NetGalley giving me this opportunity to read such a fast paced, insightful, beautifully written novel.

Here's a lovely gothic style historical novel to tempt you to stay up late reading under the covers. It's not a horror story as such but a creepy tale of madness and loneliness.

I find the cover quite enticing with the silhouette of a Magpie (Oh, Chatterpie!!) and are those drops of blood?

Wakenhysrt is the story of a young woman Maud, brought up by her bullying father in a large old house around the turn of the 20th century, after the death of her mother in bloody childbirth. Maud is a very lonely young woman, forced to grow up quickly, she has few real friends. An intelligent young woman, when intelligence is the province of the male members of a family line, this does her few favours, apart from earning her a little grudging respect from the unpleasant and unpredictable father she nevertheless longs to impress.

He "allows" her the doubtful privilege of transcribing his historical research into local lore and a book about a woman thought to be possessed he becomes fixated on after finding part of an old painting belonging to the local church known as a doom.

Het grows fixated and fearful and Maud in turn begins to fear for his sanity and possibly her own. Her only companions are the household servants, one of whom she longs to be closer to and one who betrays her, and a bird she rescues and grows to love.

Its a creepingly sinister tale, with a real twist in the tail I didn't see coming and a haunting sadness that had a lump in my throat. The story is told retrospectively by a researcher who comes to interview Maud in her old age and in this it reminded me of The Thirteenth Tale somewhat, it also has overtones of The Essex Serpent.

If you liked either of these books you will most probably enjoy Wakenhryst immensely as did I. Its a very credible and atmospheric coming of age story with a very dark core. I was rooting for Maud all the way, loathed her father and loved the water fenland location its set in.

Nearing the closing pages of Wakenhyrst, Michelle Paver writes 'Like the magic thicket in the fairytale, the hedge that protected Wake's End grew even higher and behind it, Maud continued to hide.' It is a sentence that for this reviewer sums up an incredible and beautiful darkly Gothic novel.

The book is set on the atmospheric and ancient Suffolk fens around a mysterious Ivy-clad house known as Wake's End during the first decades of the twentieth century, and which is visited by academic investigator, Dr Robin Hunter, in the mid nineteen sixties. Hunter is curious about a bizarre murder that occurred years earlier, and subsequent incarceration of the murderer, What underpinned this murder. Are there clues in the paintings he completed whilst incarcerated in Broadmoor. She gains access to his diaries. Do these contain clues? What does his daughter, Maud really know? Will she break her long silence about her father and his crime and reveal the truth?

The real protagonist of this story is Maud who like Maisie of the famous Jamesian novel 'What Maisie Knew' is a watcher, the child of a kind mother and harsh academic, religious father who insists on his conjugal rights despite many still births and miscarriages. After her mother's death following a final pregnancy, Maud diligently admires her father, as a fifteen year old becomes his secretary and is determined to unearth his secrets. Secrets pile up on secrets. Bizarre occurrences meander through the novel with increasing pace. This is a fast-paced novel full of quests mostly driven by her father's great work concerning a medieval mystic who is revealed in the author note to be based on Margery Kemp and the discovery of a sinister medieval Doom Painting. Is this Doom painting more than it appears? Why is her father possessed by it? What does 'The Life of Saint Guthlaf ' have to do with these mysteries and quests? Whose lives are endangered?

This intriguing novel is as rich in atmosphere as a medieval painting. Maud's character is brilliantly scribed. She is curious, determined and complex. She falls in love not only with the Fens and its animal life but truly in romantic love and as she grows disillusioned by those she would like to trust she faces a sinister and threatening future. She's a wonderful creation. I would also like to note that the research feeding into the story is fabulous.

This is a brilliant work, utterly beautifully written and completely atmospheric. It is exceptionally haunting, containing fully realised characters who will remain with you long after the final page is turned. It is one of the richest books I have read in many a year and I wish it enduring success.